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WW II Battleship sailor tells Obama to shape up or ship out ! This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president. Dear President Obama, My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first...

On a crisp fall day in a cemetery in Queens, a Marine Corps honor guard blew taps over the country's oldest female Marine. Sgt. Miriam Cohen did not die jumping on a hand grenade, or storming the beaches of Normandy or battling the Japanese on Iwo Jima. Most appropriately, she died on Veteran's Day, one day after the 234th birthday of the United States Marines Corps. Cohen lived nearly half as long: She would have been 102 on Dec. 13. When World War II threatened civilization, this beautiful, gutsy Brooklyn gal answered the call of a bugle, just like the...

SIERRA VISTA — Don Schoen started a slightly more than 27-year career in the Air Force as a fighter pilot during World War II with the Army Air Forces. There were about two years of training to become a pilot, said Schoen. It was September 1944 when Don arrived in Europe after sailing from the East Coast of the U.S. for five days. And it was after arriving at an air base in England that he got his first look at and first ride in a C model of the P-51. After five days of local terrain flying, he and...

Sarah Robinson was just a teenager when World War II broke out. She endured the Blitz, watching for fires during Luftwaffe air raids armed with a bucket of sand. Often she would walk ten miles home from work in the blackout, with bombs falling around her. As soon as she turned 18, she joined the Royal Navy to do her bit for the war effort. Hers was a small part in a huge, history-making enterprise, and her contribution epitomises her generation's sense of service and sacrifice. Nearly 400,000 Britons died. Millions more were scarred by the experience, physically and mentally....

After 60 years in a watery Hawaiian grave, two World War II-era Japanese attack submarines have been discovered near Pearl Harbor, marine archaeologists announced today. Specifically designed for a stealth attack on the U.S. East Coast--perhaps targeting Washington, D.C., and New York City--the "samurai subs" were fast, far-ranging, and in some cases carried folding-wing aircraft, according to Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, speaking in the new National Geographic documentary Hunt for the Samurai Subs. When World War II ended in 1945, the U.S. Navy seized the Japanese fleet in the Pacific,...

I observed the two minutes of silence on November 11. I bought a poppy and thought of my Dad, someone I always miss at this time of year. He wasn’t killed in action, but he served in the Second World War – he was a captain in a tank regiment – and lost many friends. .... The Army made him brave, and that bravery stood him in good stead when it came to facing loss, illness, mediocrity... ..... His memories, good and bad, kept him alive, alert, proud. He knew he had really lived, seen the world and made a...

Meet the men who passed through the Iron Curtain in this fascinating program about the priests trained by the Vatican to infiltrate the USSR and minister to the people suffering under communist oppression. Sun 11/15/09 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT Tues 11/17/09 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT Fri 11/20/09 4 AM ET / 1 AM PT PT

There is no massive statue at Sagami Bay of an angel with a sword and a coronet. No rows of white crosses above “99 Beach.”*** That the region around Tokyo isn't dotted with American war memorials is a matter of science, luck, politics – and endless controversy. These were all objectives in Operation Coronet, the planned seaborne attack on Tokyo in World War II. The greatest battle that never was. Guadalcanal, North Africa, Italy, Tarawa, Saipan, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Okinawa – even the planned invasion of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu – were all prelude. Each a step toward...

Barack Obama: you can dress him up, but you can't take him out. Every time he goes abroad, he embarrasses himself and sells out his country. In Japan today, Obama gave a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama. He was asked this question, for which he was unaccountably unprepared: "And to President Obama, you are a proponent of a nuclear-free world, and you've stated, first of all, you would like to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office. Do you have this desire? And what is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?...

Lt. Col. Henry "BOO" Bourgeois that flew on the 2nd Tour with Pappy Boyington.Henry Mayor "Hank" Bourgeois, one of the last surviving aviators from World War II's famed Black Sheep Squadron, died Monday at St. Tammany Parish Hospital in Covington. He was 88. (Near New Orleans)

MOSCOW, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform and other historical military costumes, accompanied by two famed T-34 tanks, marched through Moscow's Red Square on Saturday to mark the 68th anniversary of a legendary military parade in 1941. About 4,000 young Muscovites also participated in the parade, watched by some 6,000 spectators, including at least 45 participants of the 1941 parade. The Nov. 7, 1941 parade, which commemorated the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was held after Russia joined World War II and aimed to raise morale as Nazi German forces approached Moscow. The troops headed straight...

Obama Refuses To Defend Bombing Of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Obama Says He Would Be ‘Honored’ to Visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki Friday, November 13, 2009 (CNSNews.com) – Visiting the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – targets of a U.S. atomic bomb attack that hastened the end of World War II – would be “meaningful,” President Obama said Friday in Tokyo. “I certainly would be honored – it would be meaningful for me to visit those two cities in the future. I don’t have immediate travel plans, but it’s something that would be meaningful to me.” In an interview with a Japanese network earlier this week, Obama said something similar:...

Vernon Davis, who turns 90 on Nov. 14, served in World War II. “Three years, 10 months, and seven days,” Davis said with an ever-present smile. You might think that Davis participates among a litany of veterans organizations, parades, events and such. Fighting was fierce during those culminating days and nights of World War II. By April 20, Vernon along with less than 50 other men navigated to the top of Mike Ridge on Okinawa. About 500 well-fortified Japanese were their foes. According to a citation given to him, Vernon and the band of less then 50 men had “slept...

(Nov. 11) -- At first, it seemed like a sick joke or, worse, some sort of scam. The caller from North Carolina was telling John Lenox that the wreckage of his father's plane had been located. Staff Sgt. Alvin Lenox had been dead for two weeks longer than his 66-year-old son, John, had been alive. The Army Air Force radio operator crashed with four others in a cargo plane flying a supply mission from Yantai, China, to Joraht, India, in August 1943. They went down in a treacherous mountain region known as The Hump, which swallowed about 600 U.S. planes...

Some reviewers have called "Saving Private Ryan," Steven Spielberg's World War II film about D-Day and the search for a soldier, one of the greatest war movies. Military historian Antony Beevor begs to differ. Not only is it not the greatest war movie, it's not even the best cinematic depiction of D-Day, says Beevor, author of the newly published "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy" (Viking). He admires the famed Omaha Beach opening -- "Probably the most realistic battle sequence ever filmed," he said -- but described the rest of "Saving Private Ryan" as "ghastly." "It's sort of a 'Dirty Dozen'...

Thirty years ago, a young Frenchman walking in Normandy came across an American soldier's rusted dog tag among the rocks at Nacqueville, west of the port of Cherbourg. The name read: "Addison W. Arthurs." Etienne Desquesnes, now 46, wanted to return it to the owner or his family. But who was Addison Arthurs? Mr. Desquesnes wrote to the U.S. embassy in Paris but never got an answer. He finally has one now, and just in time for Veterans Day, thanks to some Internet sleuthing by his friend, Bertrand Goucovitch, 49, an amateur D-Day historian, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. After a...

American soldiers find themselves once again caught in the inhumane crossfire of the Media. Since the Vietnam War, the Media designates Soldiers as being in one of two unfortunate categories: victim or villain. The current struggle to make meaning out of the Hisan Nidal terror attack at Fort Hood is indicative of the immoral rhetorical frame created by the national punditry. Even the President has entered the fray, departing from his rash indictment of the Cambridge police officer to urge caution in judging Nidal's actions. For NPR and related 'journalistic' outlets, Nidal is a "victim" of the trauma associated with...

One landed on Omaha Beach just past dawn on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The other survived a German POW camp. Neither claims to be a hero — which is precisely why we honor these two Tucsonans as Veterans Day approaches. "Yes, I was scared. You had to be. But I credit our training for getting me through," says Bob Kirby, 88. A corporal with the 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion, Kirby waded in chest-deep water onto Omaha Beach 50 minutes past the first landings. "Bodies were floating all around, and bullets were pinging in the water. I don't know why we...

By 1939, more than 10,000 Catholic schools had been closed and the Catholic boys and girls sent to Nazi public schools for indoctrination. Catholics are constantly confronted with the claims that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, that vast numbers of Catholics collaborated with Hitler's diabolical regime, and that Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops were ardent members of the Nazi Party and supporters of its policies. It is true that many Catholics turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and others remained silent out of fear for their lives and the safety of their families. There were certainly...

In 1934, the Harvard class of 1909 held its 25th reunion—then as now an occasion for members of the American elite to parade in public and celebrate their achievements. But this year the star attraction was a German: Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl, the son of a Munich art dealer and publisher who had joined the Nazi movement and enjoyed personal access to Hitler (Hitler liked hearing him play the piano, as had his Harvard classmates, for whom he composed football fight songs). In the early 1930s he served as foreign press chief for the Nazi party. Ernst Hanfstaengl (center, with raised...

The children of the Nazi party began as a shining hope for the future, but by the end of the war they became reserve soldiers as the Germans faced military defeat. That descent from twisted idealism to cynicism and eventually disillusionment is traced in “Tempted, Misled, Slaughtered: The Short Life of Hitler Youth Paul B.,” an exhibit at the American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The exhibit, on display in the Kaufmann Building through Dec. 31, is presented with the Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh — part of a busy schedule...

A friend of a friend in Midland, Texas is protesting the federal government's spending and push for nationalized healthcare. Thomas Flournoy, a WWII veteran, is flying his flag upside down, as a sign of distress. From KWES: One Midlander says enough is enough with the federal government. He says outragous spending and a push for Nationalized healthcare has put him over the top. Now, he's not only protesting, but sending out a sign of distress. On Tuesday, NewsWest 9 spoke with the World War II Veteran who is telling everyone to fly their flags upside down. "We've got to concentrate...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2009 – For three days in October 1944, a Japanese-American military unit fought in dense woods, heavy fog and freezing temperatures in the mountains of France, answering the prayers of an American battalion pinned down by German forces. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks with Medal of Honor recipient George "Joe" Sakato at the 65th anniversary of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" in Houston, Nov. 1, 2009. The event honored the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit composed mostly of Japanese-Americans. The unit rescued 230 men, lost more than...

The ‘Lost Battalion’ was surrounded by Nazis and near certain death – until the men of the 442nd appeared. Now, they meet again Even 65 years later, Astro Tortolano thinks almost daily of his struggle to survive in the Vosges Mountains of northern France in October 1944. Surrounded by German soldiers after stumbling into a trap, Tortolano and about 280 men in the 1st Battalion of the Texas 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division rationed food and bullets. They fended off Nazi assaults. They thought all hope of surviving was lost. Six days into the crisis, different soldiers...

The last member of Adolf Hitler's notorious inner circle has died at age 96, leaving behind instructions to publish a manuscript about his time spent alongside the German dictator, the Telegraph reported. Fritz Darges was present for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements during World War II — and experts believe his memoir could disprove claims by some disputed historians that Hitler never directly ordered the extermination of the Jews, and that the "final solution" was the brainchild of SS chief Heirich Himmler. Darges rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and thought Hitler was a genius. It...

Today, October 28, marks the anniversary of one of the most important days in the history of the world, yet few people remember it’s significance. But the Greeks do, and they celebrate OXI day, every year. The day was October 28, 1940. At dawn that morning (4:00am), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, Mussolini (through Emanuele Grazzi, the Italian ambassador in Greece) issued an ultimatum to Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to surrender, or face open war with Italy. Metaxas, a career military officer and more importantly a proud Greek, was not inclined to acquiesce to Mussolini’s...

Testimony of Captain Walter R. Mansfield, first American Liaison Officer with General Mihailovich, before the Commission of Inquiry Captain Walter R. Mansfield, U.S. General Draza Mihailovich 1943 MR. KIENDL TO CAPTAIN MANSFIELD: You never saw any evidence of collaboration all the time you were there? CAPTAIN MANSFIELD: I never saw any evidence of collaboration between Mihailovich personally and the Germans. Q: Did you ever hear any reports from any Americans to the effect that there was such collaboration between Mihailovich and the Germans? A: I have only heard reports to the contrary, that there was none. From the first day's...

Charlie Bond, one of the last pilots of a covert World War Two fighter squadron, died recently, but the heroics of the US servicemen who took on the might of the Japanese air force in Burma will never be forgotten Published: 25/10/2009 at 12:00 AM Newspaper section: Spectrum Charlie Bond, one of the last surviving pilots of the legendary World War Two 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), dubbed the "Flying Tigers", died in Dallas, Texas, on Aug 18, at the age of 94. Major General Charles R Bond, Jr, served 30 years in the US Air Force, retiring in 1968....

A lot of colorful phrases are associated with World War II. Like, "Nuts!" -- one American commander's defiant response to German surrender demands. Or, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition," attributed to a U.S. Navy chaplain during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But here's another one, appropriate for this season. Trick or treat! The trick was setting up phony, inflatable tanks, trucks and artillery under cover of darkness. Then generating some ersatz radio traffic between units and commanders. Igniting flash canisters mimicking the glare of cannons firing. Erecting loudspeakers and playing the pre-recorded sounds of troops and vehicles...

Veterans Day is coming up, but there are few vets who have a story to tell like Mario Avignone.His life was changed during World War II when he was stationed near the monastery inhabited by St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Avignone, a salt-of-the-earth Chicagoan, and two fellow soldiers befriended the stigmatic miracle worker. Since then, he expresses his devotion to the saint by sharing his experiences with others, visiting the sick, and praying with the aid of relics.After a talk Avignone gave at St. Mary of the Angels Church on the city’s North Side, the 90-year-old veteran, over a meal...

Oscar E. and Anna Anderson of Willmar died believing that their only son had been buried at sea after being killed in action during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. Now, surviving family members hope to learn whether the remains of U.S. Navy Motor Machinist Mate 1st Class John E. Anderson were interred in the Saint Laurent Cemetery, Baveux, France, as an unknown American casualty of World War II. The cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach has since been designated as the Normandy American Military Cemetery. His name is listed there as among the “Missing In Action’’ from...

Standing ramrod straight as they assemble in their blazers and caps emblazoned with BMS, the pupils of the British Memorial School fall silent as their headmaster raises the Union Jack before them. The school captain steps forward to salute the flag. It is the cue for the entire school to launch into I Vow To Thee My Country. ..... Of any British school in the 1930s, none could surely have had such a patriotic streak as this remarkable establishment. Yet, ironically, it wasn't in Britain at all - it was in Ypres, Belgium. And it had another unique feature: it...

Billy Lynch left Dorchester 72 years ago, and they’re pretty sure they’ve finally found him, a long way from home, deep in the ground in China. Staff Sergeant Billy Lynch was a Marine. He grew up on Victory Road, and if you go to the corner of Victory and Neponset Avenue, you’ll see the black street sign with the gold star that commemorates William Joseph Lynch Square. It is a place of honor for a Marine who disappeared 67 years ago. He left Neponset for the Marines in 1937, right out of high school, and never came back. He was...

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-excerpt- A world away from Afghanistan, over in Holland, was approaching the 65th anniversary of the allied liberation from Nazi occupation, and I had been invited to attend by James “Maggie” Megellas. Maggie, who had fought his way through Holland and is today remembered there as a hero, is said to be the most decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division. Now 92, Maggie has recently spent about two months tooling around the battlefields of Afghanistan, and though it would be an honor to finally meet him, there was the matter of extracting myself from Kandahar City...

TOKYO – Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of the only atomic bombings in history, are teaming up to try to bring the Olympics to Japan in 2020, the cities' mayors said Sunday. Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue told a press conference they will establish a joint committee to work on a proposal based on world peace. Both men are founding members of the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign, which advocates for a global ban on nuclear arms. In a speech last month in Mexico City, Akiba said he firmly believed the world could abolish nuclear...

'The British serviceman who first fired on Japanese forces during World War Two has died at the age of 90. Jim Mariner was on board the gunboat HMS Peterel when he secured his place in history at about 4am on December 7, 1941. The vessel was in China's Shanghai Harbour and the crew had been issued with cutlasses and told they should be prepared to die defending the ship. It was the last commissioned Royal Navy craft on the Yangtze River and had been stripped of most of her weapons. She had a skeleton crew and was clearly in no...

Michael Kuryla Jr. found strength from his fellow stranded Navy comrades floating in shark-infested waters of the South Pacific for nearly five days in 1945 during World War II. Their ship, the USS Indianapolis, sank in just 12 minutes after being hit by two Japanese torpedoes shortly after the ship had delivered the atomic bomb that would level Hiroshima. Three hundred of Mr. Kuryla's shipmates died that day when the ship went down. Nine hundred were left floating in only life preservers, facing a harsh sun and sharks, as three SOS calls went unanswered. An anti-submarine plane spotted them four...

Below are all the American Presidents and Vice Presidents who have received the Nobel Peace Prize, in order from first to most recent. It was an educational experience to review all the awards since the first was given in 1901. That bears on whether the Prize just awarded to President Obama is a positive or negative thing with respect to international war and peace. 1906 - (President) Theodore Roosevelt who “drew up the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan.” This was an actual shooting war, which ended with the Treaty which Roosevelt negotiated. 1919 - (President) T. Woodrow Wilson...

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.08.2009 advertisement Six decades after surviving a battle in which many soldiers froze to death, World War II veteran John Swett still dislikes the cold. This week, he and scores of surviving comrades are basking in Tucson's warmth during the national reunion of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. More than 100 of these 80- and 90-somethings, who were part of the biggest, bloodiest land fight in U.S. history, are in town for a week of sightseeing and remembrance ceremonies. It's the first time their annual reunion has been held in the Old Pueblo, hosted...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of WWII Warsaw Ghetto uprising, died Friday in Warsaw at the age of 90. Paula Sawicka told The Associated Press that Edelman died at her family's home at 2 p.m. EDT (1800GMT) of old age. "He died at home, among friends, among his close people," Sawicka said.

Leading atheists are arguing that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime were theist and specifically Christian. Christopher Hitchens in God Is Not Great depicts Hitler as a pagan polytheist -- not exactly a conventional theist but still a theist. Atheist websites routinely claim that Hitler was a Christian because he was born Catholic, he never publicly renounced his Catholicism, and he wrote in Mein Kampf, "By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Atheist writer Sam Harris writes that "the Holocaust marked the culmination of...two hundred years of Christian fulminating against the Jews"...

WWII Vets Take To The Sky For Flight Of Honor101 Local Veterans Visit WWII Memorial UPDATED: 9:31 pm EDT October 3, 2009 GREENSBORO -- With family and friends looking on in anticipation, 101 local veterans took to the sky Saturday morning for a daytrip visit to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. These were the men and women who 65 years ago stormed the beaches in France, battled at sea, liberated Paris, marched to Berlin and served on the home front, all to squash the surge of tyrannical Nazism and preserve freedom in the world. The veterans, now...

A video showing the only footage of Anne Frank ever recorded is now available on YouTube. The video, uploaded by the Anne Frank House of Amsterdam on Wednesday, depicts the front of an apartment building where Frank's family lived on July 22, 1941, roughly a year before her family went into hiding in a secret apartment. Frank is seen on video leaning out of the second-floor window of her Amsterdam home to get a glimpse of her neighbor, who is getting married. Click here to see the video. Additional videos of an interview with Frank's father, Otto, and Frank...

The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut.

WARSAW (Reuters) - The last leader of the wartime Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, Marek Edelman, died in Warsaw on Friday at the age of 87, friends said. Edelman was the last surviving leader of small Jewish militant groups which fought against the Nazis in 1943 when the occupiers moved to liquidate the ghetto. Jewish fighters were poorly armed and the uprising was crushed in a few weeks of fighting. "It's a very said day. He was a man of great character," said Szewach Weiss, former Isreali ambassador to Poland.

This site will always support and honor our men and women in the military and express gratitude to those who serve, both past and present, those living and those who have past. To the brave who have survived and to the ones who have given life and limb in defense of this country. To feel differently would be to ignore and belittle those who are the backbone of our freedom. Yet, sadly, this is exactly what our President, Barack Obama has done to those members of the WWII era, Alaskan Territorial Guard. (ATG) As incredible and insensitive as this sounds,...

Trailer for "The Pacific", the HBO series on the war in the Pacific during WWII

I have been playing this over and over thinking of O's in strategic locations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8wfzAu8WU